Chapter 33
"And then Nene ran back and--
Emu and Rabbit Kigurumi sat on the Wonder Stage's floor, the latter patting her back while Emu talked.
She held back tears.
"Cry if you so desire to, what happened between Tenma Tsukasa, Kamishiro Rui, Kusanagi Nene and you, my lady, is something that's understandably a thing to be sad about."
It was… weird to hear such a serious and deep-voiced person such as the man in the Rabbit Kigurumi costume say such things, things her family, except Hinata and her late grandfather, would never even think of saying.
Now, what happened at the Wonder Stage that day was an event known to nobody but the Otori family and the ones trusted by them.
This, of course, included the person that was basically Emu's bodyguard by this point, who was called into the scene not long after Emu's father and older brothers arrived to see her and Nene still processing what had happened.
Emu sobbed into the mascot costume's arm as she held onto it.
"What happened next, my lady?"
He asked, Emu sniffed a couple times before answering.
"I… I heard Nene yelling and-- eventually she came back but-" sniff "she looked scared!"
Rabbit Kigurumi looked to the side, frowning. Of course, Emu couldn't exactly see that, but that's what he did.
"She never told me what Rui did… and when you guys came right after-"
The Otori brothers' relationship with their youngest sister was… strained to say the least. There was no longer any dialogue between them and, had it not been for Hinata convincing the two, the Wonder Stage would've been demolished not long after the murder.
Hinata was, in Rabbit Kigurumi's opinion, the most caring of Emu's siblings. And it seemed Emu silently agreed.
Of course, Emu probably didn't hate her brothers, but that didn't make her any less secretly frustrated by everything.
She'd barely managed to convince Nene to continue with the shows, Rui and Tsukasa were gone and the murders ruined her family's opinion of her.
She continued to sob into Rabbit Kigurumi's arm.
"I just want things to… go back to normal…"
Emu held back the tears as much as possible.
"I want to rehearse for a crazy scene with Tsukasa again, laugh at Rui's robots' dances again! Hear Nene sing again!"
Emu took a deep breath and sat up straight, wiping her tears.
"I just don't know what to do…"
Meanwhile, Saki played the piano in Sekai. She hadn't done in a while, with all the search team stuff she and Airi had gotten themselves into.
She hoped Shiho gave Tsukasa her letter, as it had been around 2 months since she'd last seen her childhood best friend leave with the letter.
Shiho would remember at least how Saki played. She needed to remember something.
So, in case she found her in Sekai again, she needed to do her best.
She continued pressing the keys of her instrument, playing a song she'd played with Ichika at their one and only concert as Leo/need.
Almost as if the world gave her perfect timing, a familiar gray haired girl poked her head to look at her, shortly after walking straight into the classroom Saki was in.
"Hello, Saki."
Es waved at her, looking a bit worried.
Saki was happy to see her, and it seemed like Es was right on the month-long warden nap thing. She looked sleepy but overall she was alright.
She was glad nothing happened to her.
"Hi, Shi- um… Es! Haven't seen you in a while!"
Es nodded, grabbing a bass that was lying on a table collecting dust like mini-figures.
"Um… I've never done this before so uh… This might sound off, sorry."
Es said, staring at the bass she was holding. Saki knew for a fact that what she was saying was objectively wrong.
Despite that, Saki didn't expect Shiho to just casually remember something as small as chords or whatever.
"It's alright! There's always a first time for everything!"
Es just… looked at her, deadpan.
"That's… not true though…"
…What?
"But- but moving on from… that, um…"
She started playing and Saki joined in shortly after, she surely wasn't expecting that, but Shiho's playing was a pleasant surprise. It reminded her of their childhood, hanging out with her friends, going stargazing with them and laughing about stuff.
But also… it reminded her of Shiho's only visit, just 2 days before Ichika told her the news.
She didn't want to think of that time of her life but, with Shiho right in front of her just like the old times, it was hard not to do so.
"Uhm… Saki..? You're still playing."
That's when Saki realized Shiho had stopped playing a minute ago.
Well that was completely embarrassing.
"Oh! Sorry about that! I got lost in thought, you know?"
"That's understandable… hey uhm… Saki?"
Es looked to the side, reaching for her pocket with hesitation.
"So uhm… you know how a couple months ago you gave me this note for a certain prisoner?"
Saki nodded. Of course she remembered.
"Yeah, what's up with that?"
Es was breaking a lot of rules by just giving that letter to 001 and a bunch of other rules by just being there with Saki and giving her what she was about to give her.
Es finally handed it over. It was another letter, clearly not the same one as the one Saki had given her.
The paper was different; It was almost transparent, close to being tracing paper and a bit crumpled. Her brother's usually clear and pretty cursive now messy, inconsistent handwriting all over the back of the page caught Saki's attention almost immediately.
"Woah…"
Es scratched the back of her neck, sighing.
"He wrote a lot of letters. More than 40 if I'm not wrong… I just picked up the first one I saw."
That was… an absurd amount of letters. Even for Tsukasa.
Es turned around, waving at her as she walked towards the door.
"That's all, see you, Saki."
"I- thanks, Shiho."
Es stood there for a second. There it was again, a name and identity that didn't belong to her, yet everyone else had somehow agreed otherwise.
She stayed silent as she walked out the classroom.
She was Es, MILGRAM's prison guard. Not whoever Shiho Hinomori was. She'd never been that person and she'd never be her.
…right?
She didn't remember anything about her past, the possibility is there…
"No… you're just Es… there's no deep explanation for it…"
She repeated this phrase until it felt true again. Until that doubt of who she was got completely buried into forgetfulness.
And when it did, she left Sekai.